Sir Gawain is one of the oldest and most important knights of the Arthurian legend. The son of King Lot of Orkney and Arthur’s half-sister Morgause, he was Arthur’s nephew and, in the earliest tradition, his greatest champion. He was famous above all for his courtesy — his gentleness, his graciousness toward women, his honour in speech and deed. He was the hero of the greatest Arthurian poem in Middle English, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. And in the later romances, his implacable desire for revenge against Lancelot helped bring about the fall of Camelot.
Gawain’s reputation changed dramatically over the centuries. In early Welsh tradition and English romance, he was the finest knight of all. In the French prose romances, he became a violent, worldly womanizer, overshadowed by Lancelot and Galahad. His story shows how the ideals of knighthood shifted as the legend grew.
Gwalchmei: The Welsh Gawain
Gawain appears in early Welsh tradition as Gwalchmei ap Gwyar, “Hawk of May, son of Gwyar.” In the early Welsh tale Culhwch and Olwen (c. 1100), he is one of Arthur’s warriors, described as the best on foot and on horseback, who never came home from a quest without achieving it. The Welsh Triads name him among the most courteous men toward guests and strangers.
William of Malmesbury, writing around 1125, records that the tomb of Walwen, Arthur’s nephew, had been discovered in Pembrokeshire, and was fourteen feet long.
Arthur’s Nephew
In Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain (c. 1136), Gualguanus is the son of Lot and Arthur’s sister Anna, and one of Arthur’s greatest warriors. He fights bravely in Arthur’s war against Rome, and dies fighting Mordred’s forces when Arthur lands in Britain.
In later tradition, Gawain is the eldest of the Orkney brothers, the sons of Lot and Morgause: Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, and Gareth. Their half-brother is Mordred, whom Morgause bore to Arthur himself.
His Strength and the Sun
A distinctive feature of Gawain in the French and English romances is that his strength waxes and wanes with the sun. From dawn until noon, his strength increased, until at midday he was three times as strong as usual. After noon, it declined. This detail — perhaps a relic of a solar hero in Celtic myth — appears in the Vulgate Cycle and in Malory. It explains Gawain’s famous duels with Lancelot, in which Lancelot survives the morning onslaught and then defeats Gawain in the afternoon.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Gawain’s greatest adventure is the fourteenth-century Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. At Christmas at Camelot, a giant green knight rides into the hall and challenges anyone to strike him with an axe — on condition that he may return the blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and cuts off his head. The knight picks up his head and rides away, reminding Gawain to meet him at the Green Chapel.
Gawain’s journey, his stay at the castle of Sir Bertilak, the three temptations by the lord’s wife, the exchange of winnings, the green girdle, and the final blow at the Green Chapel are told in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
The Pentangle
In the Green Knight poem, Gawain’s shield bears a pentangle — a five-pointed star drawn in a single unbroken line — in gold on a red field. The poet explains its meaning at length: it is the “endless knot,” a sign of truth, and it represents Gawain’s perfection in five groups of five virtues: his five senses, his five fingers, his faith in the five wounds of Christ, the five joys of Mary, and the five knightly virtues of generosity, fellowship, purity, courtesy, and piety. The poem then tests whether any mortal can live up to such an ideal.
The Loathly Lady
In another popular English tale, The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle (fifteenth century), Arthur is challenged to discover what women most desire, on pain of death. A hideous old woman, Dame Ragnelle, offers him the answer on condition that she marry Gawain. Gawain agrees for his king’s sake. On their wedding night, she turns into a beautiful young woman and offers him a choice: she can be beautiful by day and ugly by night, or the reverse. Gawain lets her choose — and this is the answer to the riddle: what women most desire is sovereignty, their own will. Freed from her enchantment by his choice, she remains beautiful always.
Geoffrey Chaucer tells a similar story, without naming Gawain, in The Wife of Bath’s Tale.
Gawain the Womanizer
In the French prose romances of the thirteenth century, especially the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate Cycles, Gawain’s reputation declined. He became a worldly knight, brave but proud, quick to kill and slow to repent, and something of a womanizer. In the Grail Quest, he fails completely because of his unconfessed sins (see The Quest for the Holy Grail). He and his brothers kill Sir Lamorak and other knights treacherously.
This shift reflected the new religious ideals of the romances, which elevated chaste knights like Galahad and Percival above the older heroes.
Gawain and Lancelot
The most tragic part of Gawain’s story comes at the end. Gawain loved Lancelot, and refused to join his brothers Agravain and Mordred in exposing Lancelot’s affair with Guinevere. He warned them that no good would come of it.
But when Lancelot rescued Guinevere from the fire, he killed Gawain’s beloved younger brothers Gareth and Gaheris, who were unarmed and had been ordered to attend the burning. Lancelot had not recognized them. Gawain’s love turned to implacable hatred. He forced Arthur into war against Lancelot and refused every offer of peace. He challenged Lancelot to single combat twice; each time Lancelot wounded him in the head but spared his life.
The Death of Gawain
When Arthur returned to Britain to fight Mordred, Gawain was mortally wounded in the landing at Dover, struck on the old head wound Lancelot had given him. Dying, he repented of his hatred. He wrote to Lancelot, forgiving him and begging him to come to Arthur’s aid, “for all the love that ever was betwixt us.” He asked to be buried at Dover.
On the night before Camlann, his ghost appeared to Arthur in a dream and warned him not to fight (see The Death of Arthur).
Malory records that visitors to Dover Castle could see Gawain’s skull, with the wound that Lancelot gave him.
Legacy
Gawain remains one of the most appealing figures of the Arthurian legend — a knight whose virtues are human rather than saintly. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight has been translated by J. R. R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage, and many others, and was adapted as the film The Green Knight (2021). Gawain represents the knight who strives for perfection, fails in small ways, and is honest enough to feel the shame.
Last reviewed: September 2026.